Neary-Sighted

Thanks to photographer and local involved citizen Phil Raschke, here's a photo of some of the Lakewood crowd who attended the bill-signing the other day. The poor governor had to sit there as all sorts of people lined up behind her. Folks have not been able to remember another time that a governor has come to sign a bill in Lakewood (though now that I have put that in print, I know someone will remind me of just such a time!)

The characters, from left to right, are State Sen. Mike Carrell - who deserves huge credit for shepherding this re-examination of how we treat offenders throughout the state - and then Lakewood Police Chief Larry Saunders, Lakewood Councilman Pad Finnigan, Gov. Gregoire, State Sen. Debbie Regala, Mayor Claudia Thomas, and a guy who, until he saw this photo, had no idea his new shirt whose collar fits so well hangs on the rest of his body like a monk's robe. Oh well.

But let's not let the sight of all these fine-looking people distract us from the news at hand: Carrell, Regala, Saunders, and many others had many, many meetings with many, many people with huge stakes in what is already going on in order to revisit and change for the better how we treat offenders in this state. And then Carrell, Regala and others got the plan approved by the Legislature. The goals include

(lots has been said about that latter subject, but if you have the time to absorb a lot of information, do not forget this recent City Club of Tacoma report which is available for reading or download in PDF format)

There is much room for optimism, for as Sen. Carrell has never tired of telling people, other states have been able to reduce the rate of repeat offenses by acting proactively before criminals are released.

There are stories about the bill signing with more details at: The Suburban Times and The News Tribune and The Seattle Times.

On the whole, Lakewood and our neighbors in Pierce County have done well so far. It's likely other parts of Puget Sound do not realize yet that they are going to have to absorb the offenders that have been sent to Pierce County until now. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the tale unfolds.